


This Is Not A Puppy Love

by hopespym



Series: betty barnes (and her human) [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Domestic Fluff, M/M, POV Bucky Barnes, Pre-Relationship, dorks being dorks, valentines day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 04:19:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17780429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopespym/pseuds/hopespym
Summary: Valentines Day was shitty generally shitty for Bucky nowadays.Sure. Once upon a time he would have a girl on his elbow, a dance partner for the night, someone to spend some quality time with, someone to romance, and then the next day they would go their separate ways and he would find someone new.But as he said, that was all ‘once upon a time’.





	This Is Not A Puppy Love

**Author's Note:**

> happy valentines! i suddenly got the inspo to write this at 1am so let me know if there are any mistakes or if things don't make sense. i hope you all have good days <3

Valentines Day was shitty generally shitty for Bucky nowadays.

Sure. Once upon a time he would have a girl on his elbow, a dance partner for the night, someone to spend some quality time with, someone to romance, and then the next day they would go their separate ways and he would find someone new.

But as he said, that was all ‘ _ once upon a time _ ’. 

The past few Valentines Days (the ones he could remember anyway) he had mainly stayed holed up in his room, avoiding anyone and everyone. That included every mention of the day where romance was high in the air and everyone seemed to be having a good time getting along and enjoying the peace.

Steve liked to worry about Bucky, a known fact amongst everyone, but days like this were days that he got free of the constant limpet on his shoulder, shadowing his every move due to the other jobs that needed to be taken care of. 

No matter how much he loved that man, sometimes he just needed a break.

And if Bucky had pulled the “ _ aw, shucks, I’d really hate to be the reason you didn’t show, Steve _ ” when his friend was desperately looking for a reason to skip the kissing booth at some event, then who was Steve to know that Bucky had only made up being busy so that he could see the ridiculous pictures of Steve online later.

Except he wasn’t exactly fibbing, he did have plans. 

On Valentines Day.

For once.

Except it wasn’t anything romantic, it was just him and Clint meeting at the dog park to watch their two dogs run around like idiots and wait for the inevitable mess that the two would get themselves into. Of course, Bucky’s dog Betty was much better than Lucky, but Clint had yet to come around to common sense on that one.

As if hearing him thinking about her, the giant alaskan malamute made her way over to him, plopping her head on his knee and letting out a little huff of breath, causing him to let out a little laugh as he ran his hands down her neck and then back up to scratch behind her ears, moving her head from side to side as he did so, “You ready to go, baby girl?”

And yes, he was such a hopeless pushover for the dog that he called her every nickname under the sun and spoiled her rotten, but who was he to deny those big deep brown and soulful whines? So shut up Steve, he had it under control. 

Besides, Betty was  _ his _ dog and he could treat her however he wanted - and anyway, the best girls deserved nothing less than the best.

Clipping the leash to her collar he pulled the black beanie he’d stolen from Clint the last time he’d been over at the other man's apartment and left, locking the door behind him before making his way down to the lobby and outside.

It was only a quick walk to the park yet Bucky still found himself there sooner than he thought he would have. It could have been due to the fact that Betty was desperately trying to get to their destination as fast as possible and Bucky allowed himself to just get dragged along, but it could also have been partly due to the fact that spending time with Clint was something that he genuinely enjoyed these days.

During the first weeks that they had met he wasn’t sure how to view the archer. He hadn’t really known much about him, yet when they had met he had found himself weirdly underwhelmed. It wasn’t like he was expecting anything though, which was the strangest part, but he assumed after meeting all of Steve’s other super-hero friends he had put them all on a pretty high mental pedestal of ‘ _ out of my reach _ ’.

Except then one day suddenly it all made sense. Clint was just a normal guy living an irregular life, and somehow that was the most startling fact to Bucky.

Between Clint when he stumbled awake at 2pm and heading straight for the coffee, to the Clint who loved and adored his trash dog, and even to the Clint who got snippy with people when he was running low on sleep yet running high on paranoia, Bucky couldn’t help but feel himself begin to get comfortable with the man.

The only flaw though, as Steve liked to point out, was that Bucky never seemed to do something like falling in love by halves, and when Bucky became to get comfortable with the man, he knew it was only a matter of time before the wax poetry started.

Steve. 

Bucky rolled his eyes and shoved his hands deeper into his pockets, hunching his back as he slipped easily through the gate, holding it open with his hip for Betty to go running through, excited to see all of her friends. Catching Clint’s eye when he looked up, the man sitting in their usual seats, Bucky couldn’t help but bitterly think that even when his friend wasn’t around, he still seemed to be annoying Bucky with his smug knowingness.

He’d have to go deal with Steve, imaginary or no, later though.

“Hey! You’re late! Was beginning to think that I’d have to call Lucky and go home.” Perking up upon hearing the other dogs name, Betty’s tail started wagging and she leaned closer into Bucky whilst looking around, trying to locate her friend.

She hadn’t needed to though because it was only a few moments later that the other dog came running over, the two sniffing each other and then running off when Bucky managed to click off the leash, “I would say blame Betty, but she loves coming here. I swear she has some sixth sense whenever we start heading this way, she always seems to speed up.”

Clint let out a laugh and shuffled over a bit on the bench to allow more room for Bucky which he accepted with a small smile, the two sitting in silence for a moment before Clint pulled out his phone with a slight sheepish look on his face, “So I wanted to wait until we met but I couldn’t help myself.”

Bucky rolled his eyes and leaned closer in, trying to get a good view of the phone even though he knew Clint would accommodate to his line of sight, “I told you you’d do this, can’t wait for a damn thing.”

Letting out a wounded noise, Clint leaned away slightly and put a hand on his heart, pout firmly on his face,  “I am nothing but reliable! So what if I had a sneak peak, there’s probably so many more pictures of Steve now - Tony’s probably even made an appearance by now.”

Letting out a little snort and shaking his head, Bucky easily snatched the phone from Clint and opened the Twitter app, searching up ‘ _Captain America_ ’ and instantly laughing at the pictures showing up.

Just as he had assumed it looked like his friend was having the time of his life.

“Oh my god! Look at his face when he saw Tony walking up!”

Bucky pushed the phone into Clint’s face and the man immediately lit up with laughter, gripping the edged to try get a clearer look as he kept laughing, “That’s brilliant! Oh man, you think he’s gonna get a PR call to at least  _ act _ like he wants to be there?”

“Probably sooner than he’s wanting, maybe even more than once. Man, that face makes it seem like the depression was one giant vacation.”

Clint let out a loud cackle and his head fell back as Bucky grinned shyly up at the other, turning his attention back to the phone before he could get too lost in the view of the happiness and ease littered across the others face.

They continued looking through Twitter before putting the phone away and just talking, catching each other up on the things that they had missed in the two days they had been apart. You’d think two days wasn’t enough time to have full on stories, but no one could really ever explain how Clint got into the messes he did.

“-and you would have  _ thought _ that I would have learned my lesson from the last time but apparently we all had too much faith in me. We really need to stop doing that, it’s getting my hopes up.”

Bucky shook his head, about to open his mouth and reply when Betty came running up to him, covered in mud, “Doll! What the hell?”

“Oh god.” Lucky came running up then, somehow covered in even more mud than Betty and both men groaned as they stood up.

“Your dog is trash and a terrible influence.”

“You only think that because you think your dog is perfect.”

“Think? That’s an insult to my baby, she’s the best girl, aren’t you? Yes you are, yes you are!”

From where he had crouched to try pat any clean spot on Betty, he looked back up at Clint to find the other man smiling down at him fondly. He couldn’t help but grin back before Betty tried to jump onto him and he let out an ‘ _ oomph _ ’ as he was crushed under the weight of the dog.

Bucky scowled as he managed to get Betty off of him and stand up, but the damage was already done and some of the mud had already rubbed off of her and onto him. He sighed and looked to where Clint was desperately trying not to laugh.

“Shut up, she’s still better than your mutt.”

“Whatever you say, Barnes.”

The two stood there grinning at each other for a moment or two before Betty let out a whine, rubbing herself more firmly against Bucky’s leg, causing the two to look down at their two dogs.

Coughing a little, Bucky rubbed at the back of his neck and looked towards Clint, trying to feel more confident than he felt, “So uh, my apartment’s closer and it’s… Probably more ideal to try clean these two at the same time so uh, wanna come to mine?”

“Why Mr. Barnes, are you asking me to spend my Valentines with you? I could have a hot date lined up for all you know.”

Bucky snorted, “You’ve got a hot date like I’ve got any date at all.” 

He started walking out towards the gate and Clint bumped shoulders with him, grinning, “Well now that’s just offensive, I’ll have you know that I’m a very hot date. And so are you,” he scrunched up his nose and looked down at Betty before looking up, teasing glint in his eye, “Preconceived ideas about your dog and all.”

So yeah.

Previous Valentines had been doomed from the start, but as the two of them kneeled on the floor of Bucky’s bathroom later, trying for their dear lives to clean their dogs with as little mess as possible, teasing each other along the way and Clint pecking Bucky on the cheek sweetly when they were done with that task, Bucky thought that this Valentines really couldn’t get that much better.

At least until he saw a compilation a few hours later of ‘ _ Captain America Doesn’t Wike It _ ’ from the kissing booth and yeah.

Best Valentines ever.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr: @/hopespym
> 
> let me know your thoughts in the comments!


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